James, Bryant to lead US Olympic basketball team

By ANDREW SELIGMAN

CHICAGO (AP) — MVP Kobe Bryant will be heading to his first Olympics, and he'll have LeBron James and Dwyane Wade with him. They will lead a U.S. Olympic basketball team that was announced Monday and hopes to capture the gold medal in Beijing in August after a third-place showing in Athens four years ago. They'll have plenty of help.

Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd were among the 12 players placed on the squad. They were joined by Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Michael Redd and Deron Williams.

"It was a very difficult selection process," said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director. "When you have as many outstanding players as we do — to select a group of 12 is going to leave out some outstanding people."

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and reconvene there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.

James, Bryant to lead US Olympic basketball team....